The article which appears below, was originally published on The Telegraph in July 2009. ©The rights to this material are reserved to the owner. If you have any concerns or comments, please send an email to info@rahmaniac.com.
Musician A.R. Rahman has his own Barmy Army — some 15,000 diehard fans who follow their idol’s every move. Anirban Das Mahapatra meets some of them.
Just in case you thought you knew everything about A.R. Rahman and were his biggest fan under the sun, here’s a reality check. Surely, you wouldn’t know anything about the ad jingles he once composed for brands ranging from Hero Puch to Leo Coffee, would you? Or are you, for that matter, aware that he’s lending the soundtrack to an IMAX production titled Heart of India? And have you the distinction of being physically present at all concerts the music director has had on Indian soil till date?
Chances are you haven’t. That is what makes people like Gopal Srinivasan and Vijay Iyer a special breed — a breed that has been steadily growing for the past decade or so to now include some 15,000 music-crazed men and women who live, breathe and swing to A.R. Rahman’s magic for every living moment. Welcome to the “real” A.R. Rahman fan club.
“It’s funny how a simple initiative on our part went such a long way in bringing Rahman fans together,” says Srinivasan, a Hyderabad-based software professional. “All we wanted to do was form a forum where people could interact with one another and contribute to an information pool about the life and works of our favourite musician. But look how far it has come now.”
Srinivasan isn’t exaggerating. Even as Rahman, who won two Oscars for the film Slumdog Millionaire, came to Pune last month to perform at a high-octane concert that marked the beginning of his Jai Ho world tour, the army of Rahman fans, led by Gopal Srinivasan and Vijay Iyer, created a unique record of attending each of Rahman’s concerts ever performed in India. “Some of us have even made it a point to be present at his concerts abroad,” says Vijay.
For Srinivasan, who’s now at the helm of all activity undertaken by Rahman’s own “Barmy Army” — a name for English cricket fans who follow the team — the journey began over 15 years ago. As an impressionable youth in his late teens, he was completely bowled over by music from Roja, the 1992 film that made Rahman a household name across India. “The music was so different, so new. It hooked me so badly that I went mad hunting down every single bit of music that had ever come out of Rahman’s studio.”
Once the Internet arrived in the late 1990s, he logged in only to receive a pleasant surprise. “The net was full of Rahman trivia, much more than I knew. Clearly, it looked like a nice platform for exchanging ideas, and I decided to take my hunt online.”
Very soon, he had struck an online friendship with Vijay, a music promoter and another die-hard Rahman fan. The duo decided to form an online fan club to “create a forum for like-minded individuals to share thoughts about Rahman,” says Vijay. That was 11 years ago.
“By 2000, when I joined, there were some 50 emails being swatted around daily among members, with crazy details and trivia about Rahman’s music,” says 28-year-old Bangalore-based software engineer Gomtesh Upadhye. The group, reveals Vijay, was eventually taken over by Yahoo!. Recently, the group went on to open a page on Facebook, where the membership quickly swelled to 3 lakh.
Meanwhile, other bonds were being struck. Sometime in 2003, almost miraculously, Vijay boarded a flight to discover Rahman seated beside him. A personal bond was quickly forged. Rahman was slated to perform in Bangalore — the city where most of the group’s fan base happens to be. It was a golden opportunity for the group to get involved in a more direct way.
“We helped out with dealing with sponsors, ticketing and even backstage work,” says Upadhye. “There were about 40 of us. We did everything we could do, for free.”
It didn’t go unrequited. The group was treated to a personal interaction with Rahman after the show, an experience most of them describe as “awesome.” Says Srinivasan, “We learnt that Rahman himself had been closely following our activity on the Internet. Since then, he’s reciprocated with great warmth to all our activities. It’s been a very special association.”
Rahman eventually invited Srinivasan and Vijay to handle parts of his promotional initiatives. Srinivasan is now in charge of all content on Rahman’s official website, while Vijay manages KM Musiq, Rahman’s music label, apart from doubling as his media coordinator.
After Bangalore, the group has followed Rahman to all his concerts in India. “It’s a crazy thing, actually,” laughs Upadhye. “We get information about the concerts much before the public does. So we begin planning our trips and start hunting for air tickets and accommodation.”
Normally, the resident members of the city where Rahman is scheduled to perform are sounded out about the group’s plans. “These people then work to organise our trips, arrange for our stays, sometimes in their homes. And then we assemble at the concert venue, dress in a common uniform (black T-shirts) that we’ve designed for ourselves, sing along with Rahman and his team through the concert and generally have a blast,” Upadhye says.
Of late, the group has even looked beyond Rahman’s concerts to do a bit of do-gooding. “Some of us in Bangalore get together on Sundays to do community service and we hand out food packets to the needy,” says Srinivasan. “On Rahman’s birthday, we sponsor lunches in old age and children’s homes,” he adds.
Then there are occasional meetings in different cities when the group gets together to discuss music, or as Bangalore IT professional Arun K.B. puts it, to cheer Rahman on in his quest for glory. “When he won his Golden Globe, we met for coffee at a Café Coffee Day outlet to celebrate,” says Arun. “Then, on Oscar night, we hired an entire lounge bar in Bangalore, where 30 of us walked in at 6 am to watch the Oscar ceremony. When Rahman got the Oscars, it was like a madhouse inside. Everyone went crazy!” he exclaims.
Some might say that’s going one notch too far in the name of fanfare. But clearly, this group isn’t listening. And given that it packs in enough chutzpah to stand out from rank fan clubs, it probably isn’t caring either. Jai Ho to that.
